My music mood has been a little fickle lately. I’ve been listening to a handful of Led Zeppelin songs, a little bit of Foo Fighters, some of Haley Reinhart’s stuff from American Idol (I can’t help it people I love this girls voice), and topping it off with some White Stripes. It’s not the greatest collection of songs but I’ve been pretty happy with my Want To Hear It Now playlist as of late so there have been no complaints, until last night that is. Last night I decided to add ten songs to the list (bringing the total up to 40) and I’m not happy with it. I just feel that there is too much on the playlist at the moment and I’m going to have to drop some songs. I like to keep it around 25-30 songs so I’m a bit over my limit here. This many songs makes me feel like the tracks I actually want to hear are getting buried by the songs I sort of want to hear. It’s weird with my Want To Hear It Now playlist, sometimes it’s all I need and other times it feels forced and I don’t want to deal with it. Today is one of those days. Even as I was putting the new material on I was thinking, “I really don’t want this here”, but I was powerless to stop myself. After this morning though I think the direction for my most played playlist is a bit more clear.
When Jesus of Suburbia started playing there was a brief moment of disappointment because it was the live version. Don’t get me wrong here I love live music, and Green Day live is such an experience. I saw them during the Insomnia tour when I was in seventh grade and I think I’d rank it in my top 15 favorite shows. I remember they brought this kid up from the crowd and had him chug a beer and stage dive. I’m pretty sure they nicknamed him Meatball too. I love crowd participation and a Green Day show is the definition of crowd participation. After hearing Bullet In A Bible it made me really want to go see Green Day again. Maybe the next tour. Anyone want to come?
Back to what I was saying, I was only disappointed that it was the live version because the studio cut is so freakin’ good. I remember the first time I listened to the American Idiot album I was mowing my parents lawn and needed something to listen to. I grabbed my sisters copy of American Idiot and threw it in my discman (flashback) because I had heard really good things about it, truth be told it had been years since I listened to Green Day so I was kind of excited. Plus I can’t get enough of concept albums. What a brilliant way to write music. Songs are great because they’re four to five minute stories but now take fifteen to sixteen of those individual stories and tie them together with an overall story for the album, well my friends you’ve just hooked me. When Jesus of Suburbia started playing I couldn’t believe how incredible the song was. I actually thought it was a bunch of one minute individual songs, it wasn’t until later when I checked the album that I learned it was all one song. Jesus of Suburbia encompasses so many different styles of music that when fused together make for an amazing listening experience. When I put American Idiot on my ipod the CD must have been scratched because every time I went to listen to Jesus Of Suburbia it was all jerky. I had to download this song individually from itunes because I couldn’t listen to the album without it. It’s the centerpiece of the story, and probably the best track but I’ll leave that up for debate.
It’s not like I don’t like the live version either. I just feel that Billie Joe is playing too much to the crowd. Not that that’s a bad thing I just want him to focus his energy on the song. It took me like five or six listens to get the majority of the story that’s being told here. From my understanding it’s about this guy (Jesus Of Suburbia) who hates his small town and the people in it and decides to head off for the city to make something of himself. I’m pretty sure that most of this song discusses his road there, which involves boredom, drug use, and soda pop of all things. The songs that follow are what happens when he reaches the city. It’s a fascinating way to build the main character of your story. I don’t think that the Jesus of Suburbia is supposed to be a good guy, I actually see him more as an angry rebel who may not have all the information he needs to make smart choices. The political nature of this album just makes it stick even more. I love, love, love political music (see Rage Against the Machine and John Lennon as two of my favorites in that genre) and American Idiot has a tremendous amount of political angst. I still can’t believe how good this album is.
Now this brings us back to my Want To Hear It Now playlist problem. Instantly after hearing Jesus of Suburbia I knew I needed to put three or four songs off of American Idiot on my playlist. This means songs need to go, and I just added ten or so songs last night so now starts the process of figuring out what songs are getting the boot. I also need to figure out what three or four songs I’m going to put on there. So I think I’ve settled on Whatsername, Letterbomb (this song is incredible), and Jesus of Suburbia. I want to add St. Jimmy but you can’t add that without also adding Are We the Waiting and I usually like to listen to this playlist on random so it just doesn’t work the same (Spoiler Alert: You’ve been invited to the painful process of organizing my Want To Hear It Now playlist. If you continue reading crazy awaits you). So if I’m adding three songs I need to remove three songs, also I’d like the amount of songs to be closer to thirty so I think I’m going to remove four more.
So let’s see… I’m pretty sure that I can part with Theme of ”Rome” (Danger Mouse) because it works better with the rest of the album, I can also say goodbye to Grave Digger (Dave Matthews Band) because it’s too depressing for right now. I only added Misty Morning (Bob Marley) to make the playlist an even forty so that can return to section. Now that that takes care of the songs I added yesterday that I’m not really looking forward to hearing, it still keeps my list at forty songs and I want it shorter. This is the painful part, trying to remove songs that have been on the list for awhile and deciding if I want to hear them anymore or remove them. So I think I’ve settled on the removal of Harder to Breathe (Maroon 5), Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2 with Jay-Z… yes you read that right), My Doorbell (White Stripes), Over the Hills and Far Away (Led Zeppelin), and Road to Zion (Damian Marley and Nas). Yeah I think this is a pretty good exchange here. For those of you who are interested this process happens anywhere from two to three times a week. Welcome to my life.
(Side Note: I just learned that O.A.R. is releasing a new album on August 2nd. I can’t deny the fact that I’m excited about this, but man I hope it doesn’t suck. I don’t think I can take another O.A.R. album not worth listening to. There is always the chance that they’ve gone back to their roots and have recorded an album that sounds like an O.A.R. album. I have to dig around to see if I can find the track list. Hopefully there are some older, non-recorded songs on there. 2011 has been such an awesome year for new music. Wait, should I put some O.A.R. on my playlist now?)
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